Magick Without Tears

A.C. AND THE MASTERS 315 why, and so on. There was little to do but to erect a superstructure of symbolism. This, by the way, has hampered me all my life, in every way: I am so aware of my own shameful ignorance on every subject-there is no mistake about this!-that I cannot conceive of any human being who is actually more ignorant than myself. How could such an one endure to live, with the consciousness of his infamy gnawing his liver? I know this sounds mad; but it's true. Well, then, I set myself to repair the omission with Part III; this should be a really complete treatise on the Art and Science of Magick, and it should be worked out from the beginning, a logical sequence like Euclid. Hence Axiom, Postulate and Theorems. I supposed even then that I could cover the field with another volume comparable in size with the former two. I did indeed "finish" this, even announced publication; it was just going to Press when War (also announced five years before by Bartzabel, the Spirit of Mars) came along in 1914. I toted the rod around the world with me (excuse my American!) and in a fatal hour of weakness, self-mistrust, took to shewing it to some of my students. Of course-I might have known-they all with one accord began: "Oh, but you haven't said anything about-"-all the subjects in the World. So I started to fill in the gaps. As I did so, I found any amount more to do on my own. It went on like that for 14 years! Since it came out the voices of detraction have been dumb. I really do believe that I've covered the ground at last. Of course, time shewed that Part I, although it did really give the essentials of Yoga in the simplest possible language, was hardly more than an outline. More, it did not correlate Yoga with general philosophy. Eight Lectures have, I believe, remedied this. As to Part IV The Book of the Law section, the idea was that the volume should comply with the instructions given in AL, III: 39. "All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and a reproduction of this ink and paper for ever-for